Emmanuel Thomas l Friday, April 28, 2023
SUDAN – Nigerian Embassy in Khartoum has reacted following viral video of students stranded in the desert for more than four hours, following shoddy arrangement made by government to evacuate the students from war torn Sudan to Egypt before airlifting to Nigeria.
In the video shared online, the students said they have been abandoned in the middle of the desert on their way to Egypt because the drivers of the 13 luxury buses hired by the embassy refused to continue the journey because they were not paid by the Nigerian authority.
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They said they don’t have money and that everything is finished and have been abandoned in a dangerous area on their route to Egypt.
Reacting to the incident, the Nigerian Embassy in Kkartoum said they were only provided with $400,000 out of the $1.2 million approved for the evacuation exercise hence they made arrangement for only 13 buses .
“The Embassy of Nigeria in Sudan wishes to clarify to all Nigerians citizens in Sudan from the start of the evacuation that the embassy received $400,000 only as advance for 40 buses.
“This made the transport company to supply 13 buses about the equivalent of the advance paid, while the company is expecting the balance to be paid to supply the remaining vehicles.
“The federal government is making arrangement to pay the balance but due to the inherent difficulties of getting money into Khartoum. Arragements are being made to send the money to Egypt and for the company to collect it in Eygpt. The embassy is appealing to all Nigerian citizens to remain calm”, the Nigerian Embassy said.
Meanwhile, Chairman Nigerian Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabire said the buses have began moving again.
But one of the students said that they got the buses to start moving again after guaranteeing payment by making a deposit of their international passport and that the students are accommodated into the buses according to state of origin on their way to Egypt.
But Abike said the state by state arrangement was such so as to ease of movement. Meanwhile, there are reports with the students contributing money among themselves to aid their movement to Egypt.
